Open closed bases instead of closing more

By Letter to the Editor

I cannot in good conscience sit around and say nothing about the possible closing of Fort Gordon. I am a military retiree with more than 20 years of service and a 100-percent disabled veteran. The state of Georgia has always had tough-willed and very tough-minded senators to represent us in Washington, D.C., until now. I am speaking about former Sens. Herman E. Talmadge, Sam Nunn, Paul Coverdale and Max Cleland. All of these gentlemen would fight.

Now we have a senator in Saxby Chambliss who seems to be afraid of his own shadow; a "yes" man who does not want or is afraid to stand up for the people who put him in his present position. Sen. Cleland had no legs and only one arm, but he had a whole lot of savvy about how to get what was needed for the people of Georgia.

Sens. Talmadge, Nunn, Coverdale and Cleland stepped up and told the bureaucrats in Washington to keep their hands off of Fort Gordon, and the bureaucrats listened.

Sen. Chambliss comes along and all we hear is Fort Gordon might have to go. The Republicans and conservative Democrats who put this guy in office should be sorry, because he is not representing the entire state of Georgia. He acts like he is still representing only one section of the state, and not all of it.

Lastly, can anyone tell me why we still need a base closure commission when we still have troops in Afghanistan and will be in Iraq for a long time to come? It seems to me that we should be opening up some closed bases instead of closing more.